> When Beijing lost its bid to stage the 2000 Olympic Games, it was speculated that the reason China did not pursue a bid for the following 2004 Games was due to the unpopularity of the number 4 in China. Instead, the city waited another four years, and would eventually host the 2008 Olympic Games, the number eight being a lucky number in Chinese culture.
In Germany, where you can request number plate combinations (as long as they are free and follow a few roles), 666 is a pretty common combination amongst young drivers.
> What’s the issue with 4444
4 is pronounced similar to "death" in sino-japanese languages and dialects.
Also, as you have the muncipality-shortcut at the beginning, and then two user-definable letters, you freqently see "rude" combinations, and noone bats an eye.
BIT-CH, MON-GO, ANA-L, DIL-DO. (And those are just the combinations that are understandable in english which I saw when driving). I'll never forget the face of the guy at the Zulassungsstelle when I was there with a friend who wanted COC-K-6969. He got it it, btw. When I tried some years later, AC-DC-666 sadly was already taken.
it spells ACAB if you match each number with the letter in the alphabet at this index (I realized that after seeing a bunch of 1312 tags around where I live)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraphobia